Four O’Clock Chardonnay 2008
Tasting Notes
The Spring Seed Chardonnay has a gorgeous nose of stone fruits (nectarine and white peach) and citrus (lime and pink grapefruit). The flavours from the nose follow right through to the palate, and these make for a clean, fresh wine with wonderful length and persistence. Four O'clock Chardonnay is a versatile wine; ideal as an aperitif, or well suited to many different foods.
Vintage
Average winter rains were followed by a very cool and dry late January/February, resulting in very healthy vines with big canopies and intensely varietal fruit which held their acidity extraordinarily well.
Winemaking
We picked our Chardonnay six times over a ten day period in order to capture different flavour profiles, and each one of these six batches were handled and fermented separately. One of the batches was handled oxidatively, to add complexity to the finished wine. Post ferment, all of the batches were kept on solids for as long as possible to further increase the complexity of the wine, and to protect the wines against oxidation. This reduces the amount of sulphur required prior to bottling. All batches underwent cool ferments in stainless steel to protect the delicate aromatics of our Chardonnay, and the wines were kept cool following fermentation. None of the batches underwent malolactic fermentation to retain the crisp natural acidity of the wine.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Picking Date: 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 21st and 22nd Feb 2008
pH: 3.16
Total Acidity: 6.67 g/L
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Bottling Date: 28th July 2008